Kyle Busch: "I was planning on holding it wide open because Ryan (Newman) could do it." Credit: Autostock

Busch caps turbulent week with crash in quals

Rookie aims for Newman's form, but finds wall instead

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Kyle Busch started the week by nearly going to Victory Lane in Las Vegas. He ended it against the Turn 3 wall at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

In between, he was penalized 25 points and had his crew chief suspended.

Welcome to Nextel Cup, Mr. Busch.

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Friday, the teen-ager tried to do a Ryan Newman impersonation, keeping the accelerator to the floor as he was about to start his qualifying lap. But the car didn't stick, and Busch's No. 5 Chevrolet ended up getting shortened by about 10 feet.

"As soon as I turned the wheel there was no hope," Busch said. "It just snapped around and went. I don't think anything broke. I didn't hear anything. I didn't think a tire went down. You're trying to build up speed and get momentum rolling, and I didn't even think that was fast enough where I could have a problem lifting in the corner.

"I was planning on holding it wide open because Ryan could do it."

Newman's car stuck on his qualifying lap, and he ended up winning the pole for the Golden Corral 500. But Busch's car went straight to the scrap heap, meaning Busch will start a backup car for Sunday's race.

"I don't know. It was probably the circumstances of cold and cold weather out there and the cold tires not matching up too well," Busch said. "You try cranking it off in the corner and hoping it sticks, and sometimes it doesn't, I guess. That was one of the times it didn't."

Busch has unhurt in the grinding crash. At least his body was unhurt. His psyche might have taken a hit, especially after his crazy week.

Kyle Busch wrecks during his qualifying run at AMS Ryan Newman scores his fifth consecutive AMS Bud Pole Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

"I'm not sore anywhere," Busch said. "I'm just hoping that these guys can get this car prepared the way that one was and we can go out and get a good day on Sunday."

But he's not that optimistic.

"There are too many different things with this car," Busch said. "That was a brand new car, so all the updates that Hendrick Motorsports has ever had was on that one. This car is more of an older one. I'd like to say we'll do really well, but I think we'll struggle."

Following last weekend's runner-up finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Busch's car was judged to have a quarterpanel that was too high. NASCAR penalized the team 25 points, and crew chief Alan Gustafson was suspended two weeks.

"I take (the 'cheater' label) real personally," Gustafson said. "It's offensive to me and it's offensive to this team. We work hard. We earned that run. The pit stops are overshadowing this performance. We were top 10 all day. I don't think you can look at very many cars, maybe the 12, that were in the top 10 all day.

"The pit stops were great. The last pit stop was one of the best that we had, down around 12.70 that got us out in position to run there. We earned that run. It's not that we were doing anything directly to get that advantage."

But that was last week. Now, Busch and Gustafson have bigger problems, and Busch knows it.

Busch will have to take it easy the first part of the race.

"Your first laps are going to be taking the green flag and (you) just try to go through the first run and hope that the first run is 20 laps long," Busch said. "And then maybe the next run is going to be only another 20-lap run to where you can come in and adjust on it both those times and get it a little bit better for the long parts in the middle of the race."

By then, maybe the tumultuous week will be behind Busch.